Musicians of Minnesota Orchestra announce program

The Musicians of the Minnesota Orchestra have filled in the details of their gala concert on Oct. 18. Stanislaw Skrowaczewski will lead the ensemble in Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5. Principal cellist Anthony Ross will also perform Dvorak’s Cello Concerto in B Minor.

The musicians previously announced their intentions of staging a concert on what would have been the opening night of the 2012-13 Minnesota Orchestra season. Management locked out the players after a union contract expired Oct. 1 and then canceled the first six weeks of the season.

Skrowaczewski, conductor laureate of the orchestra that he led from 1960 to 1979, accepted the invitation to conduct the concert and the musicians were able to rent out the Minneapolis Convention Center auditorium, which is where the orchestra was to play the majority of its season. The musicians say they are financing the venture with the support of a few donors and from their own pockets.

Orchestra management said when the concert was announced last week that it respected the right of the musicians to put on their own show, but that, "It doesn't change the fundamental issue the Minnesota Orchestra is facing."